Wildlife expert Chris Packham has gone 'One Step Beyond' other TV presenters by sneaking in 22 Madness song titles - into his BBC show Winterwatch.

Chris, 51, secretly slipped the legendary 80s pop band's hit singles into the programme - even making up fictitious relatives on live television as part of the ruse.

He surreptitiously mentioned a total of 22 songs by the group on the four-part nightly BBC2 series this week.

Packham gave his first hint what he was up to with his introduction to Monday's opening show when he announced he was wearing "Baggy Trousers", one of Madness's most successful records.

Discussing the best places to spot rare breeds of bird on Wednesday he said: "My Uncle Sam, he lives in NW5," name-checking two lesser-known singles - Uncle Sam and NW5 - in one sentence.

And in the same episode, sly Chris managed to mention "Tarzan's Nuts", the band's most obscure number, which was released only in the Netherlands, by saying: "These squirrels out there swinging in the trees like little Tarzans. Nuts is what they're after."

On Wednesday morning off-air, midway through the programme, Chris confirmed his covert game to his 52,000 Twitter followers.

His tweet said: 'Madness. The singles only. Ten so far.'

The song-title name-checks will not be a surprise to regular viewers of Winterwatch's companion series Springwatch and Autummwatch, which Chris also co-hosts with Michaela Strachan and Martin Hughes-Games.

On last year's Autumnwatch he seamlessly weaved the Best Picture winners at the Oscars into his improvised script.

In previous years, Packham has secretly dropped songs by The Smiths, The Cure, Manic Street Preachers, and David Bowie live on air without revealing his plan beforehand.

Sharp viewers of Winterwatch who spotted his latest Madness theme before the presenter's confession on Twitter took to social media to share the song titles.

The first to catch on and announce their suspicions on Twitter was @daveboy79 who posted: 'Not even 5 mins in to @BBCWinterwatch and @ChrisGPackham is quoting madness.'

In a tweet sent to the host, @zillionairemark said: 'Loving the Madness references, nice to hear "yesterday's men" get a mention, one of their most underrated.'

@phils-mannequin also wrote to Chris: 'loving the madness songs..did you manage to sneak baggy trousers in?'

Scores of comments about the singles were also posted on Madness's official Facebook fan page and BBC's Springwatch forum on the site.

Autumnwatch and Springwatch have been running on BBC2 since 2005 but this was the first live series of Winterwatch, which was based at the remote Aigas Field Centre in the Scottish Highlands.

Video: Chris Packham slipped Oscar-winning film titles into an episode of Autmnwatch